


Poo Boy (preview)

by damndonnergirls



Series: The Past is Prologue/The Future is Open [4]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Banners & Icons, Cover Art, Embedded Images, F/M, Gen, Thelly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 22:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5602939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damndonnergirls/pseuds/damndonnergirls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Seam boy falls for the daughter of the shoemaker he sells manure to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poo Boy (preview)

**Author's Note:**

> First posted on Tumblr in July 2015.

  


Her brother calls me Poo Boy.

It’s an accurate description. I’m not old enough for the mines, so I sell manure to the shoemaker. He needs it to make leather. Every day I go around with a lumpy sack on my back, and every day I stink to high heaven, but it’s a living, and I’m grateful.

I don’t think much of the shoemaker’s daughter at first. She has blonde hair, like all town girls do, and she has more meat on her bones than most. I try not to be bitter about it. She’s nice, cheerful almost to a fault, and she’s used enough to the smell that she doesn’t wrinkle her nose in disgust.

The girls I took to the slag heap, Seam girls  _and_ town girls, they complained a lot. Like coal dust, the stench doesn’t really go away, no matter how much I wash.

But the shoemaker’s daughter doesn’t complain.

 

**.**

**ooo**

**.**

 

When the baker’s son is Reaped, I feel compelled to say something. “I’m sorry about your friend,” I say, that first day.

Her eyes shine bright with tears, and my world tilts off its axis for a moment when I realize they’re a rich, warm, intoxicating brown. I always took it for granted that her eyes were blue. Then again, I never really looked at her before. But now I am, and it’s like I’m discovering her for the first time.

And she is beautiful.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

Little Sammy is five years old and not so little anymore, but she still carries him on her hip, and when she starts sniffling, he shoots me a dirty look. “You made my sister cry, Poo Boy.”

“Don’t call him that, Sammy,” she scolds him. “His name is Thom.”

She presses a few coins into my hand, apologizing profusely, thanking me for that day’s delivery.

I nod, and I walk away, and I wonder if Sammy meant to say _poor boy_.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan to expand this into a longer one-shot.
> 
> The rest of my Thelly fics and edits are archived on FFN, Tumblr, and Vimeo. I'm slowly starting to cross-post to AO3.
> 
> My fancasts in the banner (and in general) are Emily Vancamp (Delly) and Gaspard Ulliel (Thom). The mockingjay warpaint is from Jabberjays Dot Net.


End file.
